Badwater Ultra Marathon 2005- a report
Mimi Anderson writes:
10th July 2005
I have just returned from competing in the 2005 Badwater Ultramarathon. My aim was to finish the race in less than 48 hours in order to qualify for the “Buckle” – a coveted prize for the race.
Badwater Ultramarathon is a 135mile non-stop qualifying invitation only race that starts in Death Valley 282 feet below sea level finishing at the foot of Mt Whitney, the Whitney Portals at 8,360 feet above sea level. There are 13,000 feet of ascent during the race and 4,700 feet of decent!
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Runners must cover every inch of the route on foot and must be crewed by a vehicle and a minimum of two crew members. On 7th July myself and my two crew members Tim Welch and Karyn Moore arrived in Las Vegas. We hired a mini van as the support vehicle and stocked it up with all the essentials for the race including approximately 150 litres of water!!
The race started on 11th July. There are three waves of starters 6am, 8am and 10am. I was later to discover that you are given a start time according to your times in previous races so I was a bit shocked and very nervous to find that I had been allocated the 10am start with ALL the top runners – not that I was panicking of course!!
The Canadian National Anthem was sung, as we had a large contingent of Canadian supporters!! This was followed by the American National Anthem, accompanied by a CD player sitting on top of a car. Then we
counted down and we were off! The top runners seemed to go off like bullets so I had to pretend they weren’t there, not panic and do my own thing (easier said than done when you don’t like being at the back of the pack!!)
I ran the whole of the first section (v. slowly) arriving at the first Check Point (CP) 17.4 miles in 3 hrs 20 minutes. (Furnace Creek Ranch) My crew checked me in and I carried on running. My crew would meet up with me every mile, changing my drinks, giving me electrolyte pills and spraying me with water – something that Karen seemed to take great pleasure in!!! The temperatures soared to 130 degrees and the sun was relentless.
After CP1 there was a marvelous 15 mile section of relatively flat/downhill, which was a great relief, because at 30 miles the hills begin… gently at first, then UP UP UP!! One of the other crews noticed that my legs were very red and had come up in hives – Tim came to the rescue with his sun precaution trousers! Between miles 35 to 38ish I felt very tired, but my crew as usual got me through it and kept me going. I arrived at CP2 42 miles in 9 hrs 35 mins (Stovepipe Wells Village). That’s when the hard work begins!!
To be continued tomorrow
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